I am working on a pyramid box. It has dimensions specific to my own Olmec cosmological interpretation. I am making a 20 sided polygonal box which opens out from the top and the sides fall away into a star shape. Inside the box will be a small sand painting. I am not sure whether I want to use the idea of labrynth, or a tree design I developed.
the ideas centered around this piece are Olmec concepts of world-making, world-centering, and world-renewing. These concepts of cosmovision specific to this culture seem to appear in the eastern part of the world, like Tibet, as well and even though they did not develop even near each other with even possible contact, there exists similar ideas expressed visually, through religion and through the structure of daily life.
the pyramid box has 20 sides,each triangle piece having angle side measurements of 18 degrees. 20 (hands and feet-> Human element) and 18 (multiple of 3 ->all important #, and 180>>360, etc.) the other importance of 20 and 18 is through the Olmec Long Count Calendar (c. 31 bce), It combines the solar 365 day calendar with the sacred 260 day calendar, it is broken up into 18 months of 20 days. 18x20=360->circumference of a circle. Circles are important because they represent a constant, a pattern of existance and development which keeps going, as in a cycle. Cycles are important because they embody the 3 concepts of olmec cosmology and they also seem to embody similar ideas within Buddhist culture.
"Made from sand, paint or even sculpted yak butter, mandalas are visual prayers, celestial renderings of Buddhist symbology. The painstaking process of making a mandala—literally grain by grain—is met at completion with a lesson on the impermanence of life. After it has been properly blessed, the mandala is traditionally swept up and deposited in the nearest body of flowing water.
The sand traditionally used in mandalas is made from crushed limestone, which provides a particle that is fine enough for exquisite detail. a blueprint for this rendering of the schematic diagram of the Buddhist cosmos.A mandala is essentially a diagram for the Buddhist hierarchy. rendered through abstract symbol, occupies the central position. surrounded by four celestial gates, which mark the cardinal directions. Various aspects of spiritual and human existence ring the celestial palace, ranked from the sacred to the profane." --
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/buddhism/the-story.cfm
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